I love this book so much, and I’m surprised and happy to find that it still holds up after all these years since I first found and started reading it. I discovered this book when I was in mid-late elementary school, and I remember being absolutely obsessed with it (as I was with most Dorling Kindersley editions). It was my special interest. I remember that I would take this book home for weeks at a time whenever I was able to find it, whether that was in my school library, or my church library, or on a cruise ship. In fact, I think my mom even took away this book from me in like 6th grade as a disciplinary measure. My happiness was hundredfold when I received it as a Christmas gift from that same mom this year.

I don’t know… There is just something about the way that these children are depicted, so many aspects of their lives, countries, and cultures, that is so compelling, raw, and interesting to read, even if ultimately brief. I was happy and surprised to find that after more than a decade since I last read this book, I could still remember a lot of the kids’ names, where they lived, how their names were pronounced, etc. I credit that to this book. You get such a good idea of who these children are, what their personalities are like and what they care about, even at a glance. I think that this book also broadened my mind as a young kid, giving me more knowledge about and empathy towards people who were different from me and from cultures that were not my own. Indeed, these kids were children, just like me- with the same smiles, hopes and fears- and they deserved the same safety and love that I had. In my mid-twenties, this still seems as poignant as ever, and I appreciate DK/UNICEF’s work even more. It’s like a more realistic, photographed it’s a small world dropped into your lap in book form (with both sponsored by UNICEF, they had to know what they were doing there I think).

4.5 stars only because this is a book published in the mid-90s, so 35 years or so have elapsed and the world has changed- discussions of technology and other lifestyle aspects are sometimes outdated and at times can be hard to parse as someone who only lived 2 years at the end of the 90s. Few and far between, there’s also some language not really used anymore (I have not heard “Far East” for instance, used in any literature for a long time), and of course, there’s every 90s book mention somehow of the World Trade Center (yikes), but overall, this book stands the test of time and (to my knowledge) is respectful and interesting. Highly recommend, love you forever Children Just Like Me